Improvement in punching-presses



{ 2Sheets--Sheet2. W. E. BROO KE.

Punching-Press. No. 159,495. Patented Feb.9,l875.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEToE,

WILLIAM E. BROOKE, OE TRENTON, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN PUNCHlNG-PRESSES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. l59,495, dated FebLuary 9, 1875; application filed February 20, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM E. BROOKE, of Trenton, New Jersey, have invented Improvements in Power-Presses for Punching, Shearing, Blotting, (jutting, &c., of Metals, of which the following is a specification:

The leading object of my invention is to provide a novel and efficient means for adj ustin g the reciprocating stock or plunger (which is designed to carry the punch, shears, slotter, cutter, straightener, bender, 850.) to a higher or lower position, to compensate for wear and other contingencies, and also to insure great strength and power of resistance.

In the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view of a press containing my improvements,- Fig.'2, an elevation; Figs. 3, 4, 5. 6, and 7, detail views; Figs. 8 and 9, modifications of the slide-adjusting gear.

A is the base of the press; B,the solid frame, through which passes the shaft 0, the latter being at right angles to the front D of the press. E is the bed for supporting the metal to be operated upon, and also any die when used, it being unnecessary to illustrate any die or cutting-tool, as they form no part of my present invention. The fly and driving wheel F is at the rear instead of at the side of the press, and has a sleeve, 1, forming its own bearing, and through which the shaft passes, the front end, 2, of this sleeve being a flange, in which are out several inclined locking-teeth to engage with, say, three teeth of a sliding clutch-sleeve, 3, a number of teeth being used to give a stronger hold, and less liability to breaking of a tooth. The sleeve slides on feathers on the shaft. The shaft at its forward end has a crank, 4, and this crank has two bearings or supports, 5 5, in the frame, to wit, one, 5, at its rear, (being the shaft itself,) and one at its front, as seen at 5, both of these bearings being in the same solid frame or casting B, so that in the revolution of the crank all the strain that comes upon it is not only equally divided between these two bearings, instead of being thrown, as is generally the case, upon a single bearing only but the additional advantage gained in my construction is, that the front bearing is of the same casting or integral with the rear one, and,

therefore, there is no possibility of that weakness or liability to loosening, shaking, or dislocation which would be the case if the front bearing were a separate plate secured or attached to the frame.

The making of these double bearings in a solid frame, whose shaft is at right angles to the front of the machine, also simplifies the construction and relative arrangement of the other operative parts, and is a great advantage in power-machines.

My novel meansfor adjusting the slide which is to carry the punch, shear, or other tool are as follows: The slide 0' has an openin g through it, adapted in height to receive snugly a nut, 7, into which screws the screw-link 8, which is connected by a pivot to a yoke or coupling which clasps the crack 4. This nut is screwthreaded within, with a peculiarlyshaped thread, to receive the peculiar thread 7* of the screw-link 8. These threads and their object and function I will describe presently. The nut, near its top, has a peripheral thread cut therein, which engages with the worm 9 on rod 10, and which, by means of the thumb and finger piece 11, may be turned in order to turn the nut, and thereby, at will, lower or raise the slide 6, in order to adjust to any desired height the cuttingor punching implement, but more especially to lower the same to meet any wear of such implement due to the use or sharpening of the same from time to time.

As the whole strain is to be sustained by the thread of this screw-link 8 and the inner thread of the nut 7, I make the threads of the screw 8 in a peculiar manner, as seen on an enlarged scale in the detail drawing, Fig. 7, in which, as will be seen, the bottom line of the thread is horizontal, its side vertical, and its npperqggart inclined inward, the thread of the nut being similarly cut to coincide therewith, but with the horizontal part of course uppermost. This not only allows the horizontal part of the screw to rest and press upon the horizontal part of the thread of the nut, but it also gives a broader and stronger base to the whole thread of both nut and screw to meet the great resistance required in operating machines of this class at the period when the cutting device acts upon the metal to be treated, and effectually prevents the breaking of the thread which has been found to occur in nuts and screws having threads of other or ordinary form.

The clutch-sleeve 3 is moved into engagement with the teeth in the flange 2 of the flywheel by means of a yoke on the bell-crank lever G, which is connected, as seen, to a foottreadle, H, by a link, I, and a spring, K, exerts a constant tendency to disen gage the two parts of the clutch. The pressure of the foot upon the treadle brings these parts into engagement when the cutting or punching devices are to be actuated, and in order to secure them in that position while the work continues a hinged arm, k, is employed, having abreadth such that it will drop between the front ends of the sleeve 3 and the part 12 of the head of the frame 13. The under side of the arm 7,; is curved, and so cut away as not to interfere when the machine is in operation with the free revolution of a pin, 13, on the sleeve 3, which pin may be made adjustable as to position. The object of this pin is to insure that, when the machine is stopped by the slight raisin g of arm k to release the clutch, it shall always stop at that stage when the slide 6 is raised, in order to leave the cutting implement raised free from the metal on which it has been acting, and so that everything shall be left in proper position for the placing on the bed of new work, and so that, when the work is again resumed, the slide, and the implement it carries, shall start from its highest point and descend at its first movement, so that the operator is not required to manipulate and adjust, nor to raise, the slide and tool to bring them to proper position before starting.

To effect this the under surface of arm It has a hook or catch, 14, against which the pin 13 must abut when the arm k releases the clutch, and thus is prevented any further revolution of the clutch 3 after the disengagement of the clutch has been effected and the slide raised, as desired. The wheel F, by reason of its momentum, aids in bringing the pin and catch together. The fly-wheel may then still continue its revolutions without actuating the machine.

The hand-wheel L also affords a means for turning the shaft by hand, and to adjust the slide to any desired position.

When I employ a vertical slide in place of arm 7;, its under or operative side is made as already shown and described.

Instead of the worm 9 and exterior thread on the nut 7 I may employ a beveled pinion,

15, on a crank-shaft, 16, this pinion gearingwith a beveled gear, 16*, upon the nut, as seen in Fi 8.

Another modification to efieot the same purpose is shown in Fig. 9. In this case I use the worm and wormgear, and also my peculiar form of screw-threads, these threads being out upon a bolt, 17, passing through, and secured to, the center of the gear, instead of being cut upon the exterior of the link, the link instead of the gear being internally threaded, the bolt-thread on one side of the gear being a right-handed one, and that on the other a left-handed one, as seen in the drawings, these threads entering correspondingly threaded sockets made in the two parts, 18 19, ot' the link which connects the crank to the slide. Each part, 18 and 19, is made with a dovetailed feather, 20, to receive and hold to place a dovetailed plate, 21, which is the bearing for the worm 22. The dovetails prevent the parts 18 and 19 from turning.

It will be seen that by turning the worm, as heretofore described,the wormgear is revolved, and this turns the screw-bolts within the parts 18 and 19, and so lengthens or shortens the link, and adjusts the slide as may be required.

I disclaim the combination, broadly, of a reciprocating stock or plunger with an internal nut, and a screw connecting said nut with an eccentric or crank on the driving-shaft, but

I do claim as my improvement The construction of those parts, and the arrangement of them in relation to each other, as hereinbefore described and shown, the stock being an integral solid block of metal, having a rectangular mortise entirely through it, and the nut and its screw connection having threads of the form shown and described, and the nut fitting closely between the upper and lower walls of the mortise.

W ILLIAM E. BROOKE.

Witnesse,

JUAN PATTISON, J. VANCE POWERS. 

